In Hövelhof, more first graders want to go to the mill school than to the larger church school: Registration numbers are a headache – Hövelhof

“In the long run, we have to think about the possibilities for influencing and controlling we as a community,” said Thorsten Langemeier, Head of the Office, on Thursday evening in the Committee for Education and Youth. “It makes no sense to build on the mill school for expensive money while rooms are then vacant at the church school.”

For the school year 2021/22, three entry classes are now being created at the Mühlenschule, so that no rejections have to be made. Despite the decline in the number of enrollments in the coming school year, four smaller entrance classes will be formed at the church school. The members of the Committee for Education and Youth give this recommendation to the local council.

From the school year 2022/23, more stringent intervention is to be taken: Then, in general, only two entrance classes should be formed at the mill school and four at the church school. In the event that the parents’ registration behavior remains the same as this year in the coming years, this could mean that in future numerous first graders who have registered at the mill school will be rejected and referred to the church school – even though the community is generally increasing The number of registrations at the Mühlenschule is calculated, as the new “Portemeiers Kreuz” building area (Bentlakestrasse / Sennestrasse) will soon be built in the immediate vicinity.

The proposed resolution now recommended to the council would limit the number of admissions to the mill school from the school year 2022/23 to 54 first graders. “If there is a registration overhang, the registrations for which the mill school is the closest elementary school are taken into account,” the administration says.

In the committee meeting, the opposition asked what the reason for the falling number of registrations at the church school could be. “With the decision to consider only 54 registrations at the mill school in future, we are alleviating the symptoms, but we are not dealing with the causes. There must be reasons why fewer parents than before want to send their children to church school, ”said Benjamin Sandbothe (FDP).

“The church school was always so popular. Is that because of the school management? ”Asked Angelika Wichmann-Glaser (SPD). The administration is not aware of the parents’ motives, said office manager Thorsten Langemeier.

“We can now speculate a lot here, but the content of schools is not up to us politicians,” said CDU parliamentary group leader Udo Neisens. His party colleague Hermann-Josef Kias speculated that the declining number of registrations could be related to “negative press coverage”. What is meant is the discussion about the termination of the former provider of the Open All-Day School (OGS) in the summer. “Positive reports get noisy, negative individual cases get stuck,” says Kias. Therefore, the media should try as far as possible not to torpedo schools and instead report positively: “You can also print criticism subliminally and not so loudly,” Kias outlined his ideas.

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